Tau Skyray Missile Defense Gunship
Skyray Missile Defense Gunship
Clan experimental
60 tons
BV: 1,605
Cost: 10,875,000 C-bills
Movement: 4/6 (VTOL)
Engine: 10
Internal: 36
Armor: 250 (Ferro-Lamellor)
Internal Armor
--------------------------------------
Front 6 62
Right 6 49
Left 6 49
Rear 6 39
Rotor 6 2
Turret 6 49
Weapon Loc Heat
----------------------------------------
iATM 12 TR 8
Clan TAG TR 0
Clan TAG TR 0
Ammo Loc Shots
----------------------------------------
iATM 12 Ammo BD 5
iATM 12 Ammo BD 5
iATM 12 Ammo BD 5
iATM 12 Ammo BD 5
Equipment Loc
----------------------------------
Chin Turret TR
Active Probe BD
Armored Motive System BD
Enviromental Sealed Chassis BD
First An explanation:
Normally the tau tanks in 40k are considered hover tanks. Initially I set about trying to build them as such, and to start with I was looking at the skyray. Let me be frank, it is not possible to build the skyray as a hovercraft in battletech, not the way it really is. The culprit is the 6 single shot missiles it carries. They are a defining feature of the unit, and I wanted to include that function, rather than give it several full missile launchers, even if they were one-shot. The only way to carry missiles the way a skyray does is to be a VTOL, LAM, or Fighter. Tau hover tanks have those big turbines on the side, and there is actually artwork of airborne tau vehicles. When I realized all this I finally had the key. Those turbines on the side are it's rotors as a VTOL, and the big rack of missiles you see are 6 Light Anti-Air missiles carried on the external hardpoints that VTOL come with. This factor also decided the weight: in order to carry 6 LAAMs, it would have to have 12 hardpoints, (each one takes the space of 2 hardpoints), and since you get 1 hardpoint per 5 tons, a 60 ton superheavy VTOL was in order.
It is simply a VTOL that operates awfully close to the ground as standard operating procedure. This does however let it simulate the "anti-gravity' abilities of magic scifi hovercraft, and I am satisfied with this. In game of course, it will follow all the rules of being a VTOL, including being very, very vulnerable to melee attacks...
Have I mentioned I consider the skyray to be one of the two worst thought out designs by Tau engineers?
The Tau Empire's premiere anti-aircraft tank, the Skyray Missile Defense Gunship was designed, very simply to knock enemy aircraft out of the sky. It also has the capacity to have anti ground ordnance on it's 'wings', and in general it is built to support the ground troops. It also has 2 TAG units, able to pinpoint multiple targets for other skyray gunships, if they are loaded with laser guided ordnance.
For more lasting attack capability the Skyray carries a "Smart Missile System", an iATM 12 with multiple types of munitions. On top of this, it's Ferro-Lamellor armor gives it the best protection the Tau Empire can produce.